Chapter Overview
Summary
Psalm 13 (MT) / Psalm 12 (LXX) is one of the Psalter's shortest laments — a model of the lament-genre structure (complaint, petition, trust-declaration). The fourfold 'how long' opening intensifies the plea; the closing 'I have trusted in your faithful love' resolves with trust even before deliverance is visible.
Notable Variants
The fourfold 'how long' opening at 13:2–3 as the paradigmatic biblical-lament formula (echoed Rev 6:10); the 'sleep of death' at 13:4 as pre-resurrection vocabulary.
Structural Notes
MT Ps 13 = LXX Ps 12. 6 verses.
For the choirmaster. A psalm of David.
Superscription tracks MT.
How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
Opening 'how long' (heōs pote) tracks MT. Revelation 6:10 ('how long, O Sovereign Lord, before you will judge?') puts the same question in the martyrs' mouths.
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts, with grief in my heart day after day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
'Wrestle with my thoughts' tracks MT. The interior-anguish vocabulary is distinctive to Davidic introspection.
Look at me! Answer me, LORD my God! Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death.
'Give light to my eyes — or I will sleep the sleep of death' tracks MT. 'Sleep of death' (hypnos eis thanaton) is one of the Hebrew Bible's euphemisms for mortality. John 11:11 ('our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep') uses the 'sleep'-as-death idiom Christologically. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 ('those who have fallen asleep') extends to all Christian dead.
Do not let my enemy say, 'I have prevailed over him!' Do not let my foes rejoice when I stumble.
Enemy-rejoicing-imprecation tracks MT.
But I have trusted in your faithful love; my heart will rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has dealt generously with me.
'I have trusted in your faithful love' tracks MT. The lament-resolution: trust precedes deliverance. The threefold closing (trusted / rejoice / sing) is the paradigmatic lament-psalm trust-declaration.